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Comment by toyg

15 years ago

As the proud parent of a very chatty daughter of two, I wonder: what would be an equivalent sort of project for girls? At the moment she likes Duplo/Lego because it's one of the few areas where we connect over the gender divide, but her other roleplay and games are all about caring and she's very empathic with other children (worrying when they cry etc). I do wonder whether pointing her towards hackerdom would really be the right thing to do.

15 comments

toyg

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todayiamme  15 years ago

The point is that she will find her own way, but she needs to see what different paths exist. So, don't hesitate to show her hackerdom, she can help so many people with hackerdom and even better show her this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2758516 right above that might answer your quandary in a definite manner

sheffield  15 years ago

I think the moral of this story is that it's not your business. She will decide what she want to do, and her parents should help, and not restrain her, or tell her what to do.

Tichy  15 years ago

Here is the story of a girl who was raised to become a chess grandmaster by her dad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polg%C3%A1r

Just saying - girls play chess, too.

There are infinite possibilities for doing things in the world. If not building things, what about the kid who held a speech in front of the UN at age eleven and apparently moved lots of people to tears (don't remember - was it on HN recently?).

You could do some biology stuff, like EO Wilson who went on the trail of fire ants. Some biological drama is probably playing out right now in your backyard.

What I mean is: whatever interests your daughter, there is probably something useful/fun to do.

ordinary  15 years ago

Guy's checkers table was no more a "project for boys" than a project for your daughter (or, better yet, by your daughter) would be a "project for girls". The thing I took away from the OP was to support your children in whatever they do, regardless of whether they want to have tea parties with their friends or climb trees or hack the NSA.

Well, OK, maybe not that last one.

  • artmageddon  15 years ago

    >Well, OK, maybe not that last one.

    You know a headline like "My weekend project: father/son NSA hacking" make for a great story to read on HN. ;)

  • Vivtek  15 years ago

    My son keeps asking me about how to "hack computers" and I'm pretty sure that's what he's on about. I keep telling him about how to program. Eventually I hope it will click.

    • marquis  15 years ago

      The 10-yr-old son of a friend of mine got into programming after asking me how to set up a game server. Introduced him to basic networking via the router config, explained how the internet worked and from there he got interested in how games are made. I think we all have our own stories about what compelled us to dig deeper.

marquis  15 years ago

I was brought up by an awesome dad like the one in the story in many ways, he just exposed me to everything that he was interested in. We had computer guts all over the floor, the garage was full of electronic parts he was fooling around with. No 2nd-hand television lasted that long in our house. A really strong memory for me as a young child was just hanging out with dad making/breaking things, and my dad not in any way playing favourite over me and my big brother (though I was only allowed to watch when they were putting computers together). I am positive that just this exposure gave me the impetus to follow my inclination into the world of making stuff as soon as I became dexterous enough to do so (whether it was anything I found interesting in a 'make stuff' book, treehouse expansions, modding my bike, breaking electronics). I think of it as having the 'scare' taken out of me - just being exposed to a technical workshop from birth meant that I didn't have to make that leap from 'I want to make stuff' to 'how do I make stuff' because my dad and brother had shown me that you just, well, make stuff and figure it out as you go. Now my nephews have the same life - I'm so proud of my 4yr old nephew when I ask him for a specific wrench size or anything from the workshop. Just through exposure he's learnt what all the tools are and what they are for. If he wants to grow up and be a hacker, that's great but whatever he chooses to do in life he'll always know that if something breaks he can try and fix it, or (hopefully) break it himself for his own needs. If your daughter is interested in being a hacker she'll let you know.

zwieback  15 years ago

I've got two daughters 9 and 11 and so far they've built projects just like the one in the article (although our stuff ends up looking a bit less refined at the end).

It seems like our girls turned less "girly" once they started school and of course it helps both my wife and I are engineers. Pink spray paint is always an option...

tomjen3  15 years ago

The equivalent thing for girls?

Build stuff, obviously. Maybe not the same (I for one wouldn't have wanted a checker table as a kid), but building is something everybody should do.